Directed by: Lloyd Corrigan
Written by: Tristam Tupper
Starring: Boris Karloff. Warren Hull, Jean Rogers
Pick it up at Amazon: https://amzn.to/2IE8KZa
1 hour, 7 min.
The new owners at Universal say “Horror is played out, but we’ve got Karloff under contract for another film. What do we do?” This film is the result.
We start out with a security company salesman installing a new alarm system for a stereotypical Italian couple. If someone comes in, a light blinks on a big display at the office. The owner of the Ranger alarm company wants to buy the rights to a new light-beam wireless security system from David Mallory (Karloff). He’s invented this new contraption that if you walk between two points, it breaks a beam of light and signals the alarm. Mallory explains that it was a challenge to finish this, because he’s quickly going blind. He’s also got a “key” that will break down the old system completely that he developed on the side.
Steven Ranger and Mallory’s lawyer are conspiring to rip the old man off. They sign the papers, and Mallory wants to know when it’s going to be implemented. Ranger is buying the device to bury it, not replace his old system. Ranger stole the patent rights of the current system from Mallory twenty years ago, and now he’s doing it again.
“You WILL put in my system,” Mallory says, “because what I created, I can destroy,” as he holds up the “key” that Ranger doesn’t know about. Mallory fiddles with the key, and all the cell doors in the basement unlock, releasing Petty Louie from confinement there. There are a bunch of reporters surrounding Ranger when he gets word that the prisoner downstairs has run off. On the wall of the cell is scrawled “What I create, I can destroy” signed “Night Key.”
The thief, Petty Louie, helps Mallory find his way home when his glasses get smashed. Ranger’s men come for Mallory, but Louie alerts him that they’re coming. Mallory and Louie break into a clock shop, but they don’t steal anything, they just move all the stuff in the shop around. Again, they leave a message: “There is so little time left– Night Key.” Night Key is making a laughingstock out of Ranger Security. Louie wants to actually rob the places, but Mallory won’t hear of it; his goal is humiliating Ranger.
Jim Travers, who works for Ranger, likes Mallory’s daughter, who flirts right back. He stalks her all over town. He really likes her, even though he wears more eye makeup than she does.
The press makes a big deal out of The Night Key, and the real gangsters take note of it. “A guy with a talent like that should be working for me,” says The Kid. The Kid’s men find Louie quickly, and of course, Louie is a sellout. The gang captures Mallory and cracks the safe in the latest jewelry store.
Now real robberies are going to begin. The gang takes Mallory to break into a fur shop, but Mallory sets off the alarm instead of turning it off. They need some kind of leverage to get him to cooperate.
Louie and Fingers stake out Joan, Mallory’s daughter, but Louie scrawls a note on the table “Send police to ABC Delivery Company.” They grab his daughter and take her to The Kid. Travers comes in right after, but the waitress has erased everything but “ABC DE,” which he has to work out for himself. Meanwhile, Mallory and Louie have a plan…
They get just far enough away to run into Travers. Mallory and Travers go off to rescue Joan. Mallory sets it up so when they use the key, the alarm will work. The cops catch up with the Kid’s gang while Mallory releases Joan. The Kid gets in the car with Mallory and Joan and drives off. There’s a car chase, but Mallory uses his key to sabotage the car’s engine. The cops grab The Kid, Travers grabs Joan, and Mallory and Ranger make peace. The End.
Commentary
Karloff was only 50 years old here, but Mallory is ancient. He’s well-played by Karloff. Louis is a caricature movie thief. The Kid looks like a puppet with lips superimposed on his face. The electrical equipment looks stolen from the Frankenstein set, but the special effects are pretty good for a movie of this period. There’s a neat trick where they drive a car into the back of a moving van as a disguise; we’ve seen this trick lots of times since, but it was a new concept when this came out.
This movie definitely has a sci-fi slant to it, but it’s absolutely not a horror movie. It was released with Universal’s “Shock Theater” package along with all their horror films, so it gets in here on a technicality, but it was fun nevertheless. It was entertaining as a fun gangster/sci-fi adventure, but other than having Karloff in it, there’s not much horror here.